Abstract

We investigated the thermal conductivity in quantum dotsuperlattices both theoretically and experimentally. It is proposed that thermal conduction through the quantum dotsuperlattices can be described by the phonon-hopping model with the interface transparency obtained from the experiment. Thermal conductivity has been measured as a function of temperature from to . We have observed an order of magnitude decrease in thermal conductivity value compared to bulk and shift of its peak position to higher temperatures. The thermal conductivity manifests dependence for . The phonon-hopping model describes the measured thermal conductivity surprisingly well over the wide range of from . The model allows one to include the specifics of thermal conduction in quantum dotsuperlattices, such as the dot size, disorder, and interface quality. Our results suggest that the examined quantum dotsuperlattices are closer to the disordered or polycrystalline materials in terms of thermal transport.

Received 18 April 2005Accepted 20 September 2005Published online 08 November 2005

Acknowledgments:

The authors acknowledge useful discussions with Professor K. L. Wang (UCLA). The work has been supported in part by the National Science Foundation and MARCO Focus Center on Functional Engineered Nano Architectonics (FENA).